The Weight of Water 2001

Janice Page, Boston Globe: Though it never rises to its full potential as a film, still offers a great deal of insight into the female condition and the timeless danger of emotions repressed. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: A boring, pretentious muddle that uses a sensational, real-life 19th-Century crime as a metaphor for -- well, I'm not exactly sure what -- and has all the dramatic weight of a raindrop. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: Kathryn Bigelow, it's like she's directing two films. They have very distinct styles, and everybody gets their say and gets their moment. Read more

Susan Stark, Detroit News: Read more

Loren King, Chicago Tribune: Bigelow directs this screen version of Anita Shreve's complex novel with polish and a flair for the melodramatic. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: When the movie finally collapses on itself late in the game, it leaves you in the frustrating position of having to pick up its scattered pieces and assemble them as best you can. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Shreve's graceful dual narrative gets clunky on the screen, and we keep getting torn away from the compelling historical tale to a less-compelling soap opera. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: It's got a good director. Good cast. Good source material. Yet it still sinks like a stone. Read more

Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times: No matter how deep her hurt, Jean and her insecurities make for an impoverished counterpoint to the tragedy of a woman imprisoned by history as well as by madness. Read more

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: There are a few wrong notes, and the ending is too enigmatic for its own good, but for a studio production the film is uncommonly intelligent and uncompromising. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Maneuvers skillfully through the plot's hot brine -- until it's undone by the sogginess of its contemporary characters, and actors. Read more

Gary Dowell, Dallas Morning News: The jarring jumps between disconnected stories and watered-down sensationalism make for a soggy experience. Read more

Ron Stringer, L.A. Weekly: Heavy-handed exercise in time-vaulting literary pretension. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: Kathryn Bigelow's attractive film version of Anita Shreve's novel is a gripping plunge but a remote one, suffering from the weight of one too many inexpressible thoughts. Read more

Michael Sragow, New Yorker: The boating scenes have a languid yet charged sexuality, and the performances remain vibrant and rock-solid to the end. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: In old-fashioned screenwriting parlance, Ms. Shreve's novel proved too difficult a text to 'lick,' despite the efforts of a first-rate cast. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Bigelow is so intent upon making a non-exploitative movie that she de-sensationalizes the film to the point where it loses all energy. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The actors are splendid, especially Sarah Polley and Sean Penn, but we never feel confident that these two plots fit together, belong together, or work together. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: An intelligently made (and beautifully edited) picture that at the very least has a spark of life to it -- more than you can say for plenty of movies that flow through the Hollywood pipeline without a hitch. Read more

Carla Meyer, San Francisco Chronicle: Involves two mysteries -- one it gives away and the other featuring such badly drawn characters that its outcome hardly matters. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Time Out: Read more

Emanuel Levy, Variety: Artistically speaking, Bigelow's drama may be her most ambitous and personal film to date, a multi-layered (period and contemporary) psychological thriller that borrows from Bergman's masterpiece Persona; commercially, however, it's problematic. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Lovingly detailed but unaccountably clumsy, obviously ambitious, and unfortunately chintzy. Read more